


Flower-Carnem Manducans

by whoknowswhere



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dark Magic, First Dates, First Kiss, Inspired by Fanart, M/M, Ratings: PG, Three Years Later, Translation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-06 20:29:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20513036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whoknowswhere/pseuds/whoknowswhere
Summary: “You are not…mad.” Marco relaxed his arm and let go his sword. It dropped to the ground and made a harsh sound.The crazy vines around him came to a sharp break, including the one that was inches away from Marco’s head. Brown hair youth can’t stop shaking his body, he looked up to Tom with confidence, come to realization of the name of that emotion, “ You are not mad, you are…sad, no, lonely.”





	Flower-Carnem Manducans

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Not sure about the title but I love the work~](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/517022) by Xim. 

Marco chopped off a bush of messy thorns in front of him, completely ignoring the damages they have done to his body. He turned his head toward the direction of Star, witnessing her fight with a giant piranha plant like creature.

  
He scratched his head with annoyance, confused by the event which happened with the last 24 hours. He honestly thought that he and Star got rid of magic three years ago. It would mean that they cannot wield the wand, and they can not enter and exit other realms as they pleased.

  
“Be careful, Star!” Marco screamed from the window of a light tower, only attracted the plant creature’s attention. He quickly dogged a random attack, continue to climb the stairs.

A lot of things have changed in the past three years, none more significant than his break up with Star. He can vividly recall the event. They both looked at the nightly sky, feeling the flame between them die like a star light years away. Marco tried to explained that the starlight was visible to them because it traveled a long distance, by the time it reached them the star itself had already lost its energy.

  
He wasn’t too sure why he chose to talk about that, maybe it was because that Star did not want to talk about anything at all.

Marco did not mind the break up, their relationship never had a solid foundation. He and Star are still very good friends, just like him and Jackie. If anything, he spend more time having a crush on Jackie, but that love ended regardless.  
Well, that’s beside the point! Marco sighed quietly, soon detected the person basked in the creepy purple light.

Tom——  
He’s finally at the top of the light tower, not sure whether he is getting ready to defeat the overlord or rescue the princess.

  
He tiptoed closer to demon who was wrapped in poison thorn. Strangely, he stopped to observe the changes of Tom’s features.  
Tom’s chest and shoulder are broadened to twice the size as Marco remember. His baby face grown edgier and matured. He looked like a real fearsome demon came straight from the darkest fairy tale. From Tom’s torn clothes Marco can tell he is no longer insisting on his teenager gothic fashion.

  
Marco’s heart is beating in an inhumanly speed. He cannot narrow down the reason why. Secretly he compared this heartbeat to meeting his first love after a long time being apart.  
However, it all came crumble down the moment he laid his eyes on the demon.

All three eyes of Tom were glowing coldly as he turned to look at Marco, a purple flower with skeleton stamen bloomed vigorously on his chest. Waves of thorny vines grew from the base of the flower, tightly coiling up Tom’s upper body. The demon torpidly lifted his head, blinked at Marco with his emotionless face.

“Hey…Tom, it’s me, buddy, do you…recognize me?” Marco carefully stepped one foot forward.  
Tom tilted his head. The motion reminded Marco some freaky zombie movie, then he heard Tom’s calling, “Mar…co.”

  
It was truly a bleak voice coming for a fire demon, Marco instantly felt chilled to his bones.

“It’s me…Tom, Marco. Tom…”Marco wanted to touch Tom with his hands, “That..plant monster is eating your power, can you stop it?”

  
“Mar….co….”Tom stared at Marco with intensive gaze, some part of his brain registered the name. Yet to Marco’s surprise, it only ticked him off more than ever. Tom grind his teeth while started shooting fire out of his hand, fire aimlessly flied across the room, one managed to hit Marco’s chest.

  
“Marco….Marco!”  
Marco’s chest instantly burned by the unexpected attack, feeling light-headed from the intensive heat wound.

Thorny vines busted out of Tom’s chest, soon covered the ground of the light tower. They grew again into the shapes of pythons, pushed Tom’s body to the air while coiling him even tighter.  
“Tom! Wake up!” Marco dropped and rolled on the ground, took out his sword to cut off the vines nearby, “No more, these flowers are sucking your power, wake up, or you will….”

  
“Marco.”  
“You will….die.” Marco opened his eyes wild, as if he just realized what kind of trouble they were in. The plant did not give him any break. Before he can react to the next attack, the thorn sneaked up on him, wrapped up his right hand and lifted him up in midair. Marco took a sharp breath upon feeling the thorns piecing his skin, sensing hot blood running down his hand.

He will die…  
Marco was brought closer to Tom by the vines, helplessly searching for any signs of Tom’s true self.

  
He will be stabbed through the heart, Tom’s life force will be drained and Star will die on the battleground, slightly more dignified and glorious than both of them, Marco added.

  
How did things transpire into this mess? Marco wanted to drag out the vines on his right hand, but soon his left hand was caught by the vine as well. He sadly gazed upon the flower of death on Tom’s chest, moving ever closer to him.  
The story has to be rewinded back to 24 hours ago, or maybe 3 years.

**Twenty-Four Hours Ago**  
The Hispanic kid stared at the water lantern event tickets, tried his best to hide his sigh. The event was organized by the mermaid and fairy communities in order to promote diversities. Marco was honored to be invited to participate in it, but he had no dates.

  
He knew he did not have to have a date, but somehow cannot help to imagine how much better to experience it with someone. Asking Star is awkward since it was way too romantic for friends, not to mention that they were exs.  
He stepped into his own room and had a serious case of déjà vu. Not only he saw Star sitting on his bed, there was also an aged demon with millions of eyes on her body floating in the middle of his room. Her next-to-zero reaction really made Marco doubted that he entered a wrong room. After a few seconds, the demon finally opened her largest eye, questioned with a dried crack voice, “He is Marco?”

  
“Yes!” Star nodded her head, then quickly turned to Marco, “Marco！Madam Damballa！Madam Damballa! Marco！”  
“Star, you can’t just come to my room without my permission.” Marco threw his backpack on the bed, secretly canceled his long weekend plan.

  
“Yeah yeah blah blah blah no privacy blah blah blah personal space! Got it! Madam Damballa is the demon of time and space from the underworld, she’s here to tell us that Tom is in trouble!”  
“Wait, wait wait…hold on a second, demon can travel through space? I thought you destroyed magic?” Marco frowned.

“Silly earth boy, magic cannot be destroyed.” Damballa shook her head, “ what Ms. Butterfly destroyed was the magic source to her world, she did not destroyed magic itself. Magic came from a root deeper than any of us creatures can grasped, supporting numerous realms as we speak. For instance, underworld is ran on magic. When Ms. Butterfly 'destroyed magic’, she blocked the port to the source of magic, brought temporary peace to her world.”

  
The demon projected an image in the room, pointed at the spring in the projection and led it to a demonoid. “ Every magical being can draw magic from their world. As of demons, the higher their classes are, the easier they are to draw magic. It also depends on how the magic takes form. Power as raw as fire is easier to manipulate. Once you traveled to other realms, magic users like Ms. Butterfly can draw magic from that realm in order to protect herself.”

  
“So…let me get this clear, when Star destroyed magic, she really was just cutting the tie with other realms. But if creatures from other world wanted to enter earth, they have the power to do so.”  
Demon smiled with what seemed to be recognition. “Indeed.”

  
“OK…” Marco nodded his head, trying his best the ignore the signs of danger which came with that realization and how truly vulnerable earth is. “Why did you come to earth?”  
“Prince Tom is in some trouble.” Damballa sighed, “He accidently touched dark magic when he was sorting books in a library.”

“Dark magic…like Eclipsa’s?” Marco watched Star nodding her head, “But our world is magicless, we can’t undo the spell for him.”  
“If demon can undo the spell, we wouldn’t ask help from outworlder. It’s a shame that this spell is attached to one’s individuality, it would only react and direct itself to certain people. It cannot be undone without the right candidate.”Damballa blinked her enormous eye at Star and Marco, “ You two are Prince Tom’s best friends, and the best candidates.”

We are…the best people?  
Marco dug up weapons from the bottom of his trunk, changed to clothes that reminded him of his hekapoo dimension days.

  
He followed Star and Damballa’s footsteps into the demon elevator, stayed quiet for the longest time.  
He cannot stop wonder why. Why would he and Star be the best candidates? Marco covered his chest with his hand.  
Three years ago, after they amalgamated two worlds, Tom gave them his blessing and left without a trace. Even though Tom’s birthday gifts to him often mysteriously appeared on his desk, he was never be able return the favor…. He had not seen his friend for a long time.

What’s worse is that it was because of them. They decided to mend their world, which chased Tom away.

  
“Carnem Manducans is a tenacious magical plant. They tend to find the weakness of their host, encourage and nourish those thoughts, provoke hosts to go berserk at the same time suck the energy until there is nothing left.” Damballa explained, “King Dave and Queen Wrathmelior both try to wake him up, both were rejected by him.”

  
“Tom’s weakness, you mean his temper?” Star responded while placed a hand under her chin.  
Damballa shook her head, “I am afraid it’s deeper than that, we both tried to calm him down and failed. We are not talking about emotion lingered on the surface of his personality. The spell acts on target, if Prince Tom was never displeased with his parents, then the spell won’t react to his parents.”

  
Star lowered her head, “You think…he was displeased with us?”  
Marco turned his head to look at Star, feeling equal amount the shame on his part. He and Star made the world they are in now, cut the tie with underworld. He never tried to contact Tom due to his busy schedule. Tom…must be mad at them.

“I am not sure what kind of emotion this plant is feeding on, you two has to figure it out.” Damballa stepped out of the elevator into a sandy beach. Three of them simultaneously saw the light tower in front of them. Poison vines leaked from the outlook and covered up the body of the tower, wriggled on the sand and crawled towards all directions. Upon finding their “visitors”, some vines formed into a snake shape and screamed at them.  
“uh….”  
“ It is worse than hours ago.” Damballa sighed again, pointed at the outlook,” Prince Tom is in there.”

“Great!” Star took out her wand, made sure it could draw magic from underworld, and turned to Marco, “Marco! I will go draw its attention away; you go check out Tom’s situation.”  
“Wait! Even I know where he is, I can’t change anything, is he even conscious now?”

  
“No time to discuss, try to wake him up, we will come up with something else if it failed!”  
With her typical “star solution”, Star rushed to the plants and started blasted them with “underworld version rainbow blast”.

Knowing whatever he had say will fall on deaf ears, Marco did himself a favor and stopped criticizing Star’s action before they came out of his mouth. He quietly made his way to the backdoor of the light tower, pry the door open with his sword, and ran on the spiral staircases.

  
_ “Marco, you know…Star and I broke up, so you know… you can.”_

He suddenly recalled what was being said to him years ago, when Tom first decided to tell him that he broke up with Star.

  
_“You are cool, Marco, and I was hoping to be as cool as you.”_  
…And when Tom brought the Dragoncycle so he could hang out with Marco.

  
That prideful prince, the prince that yields to no one, the incredibly devoted and self-sacrificial prince, the prince that is always willing to improve. Marco chopped the vines that blocked his way, feeling his heartbeat increased.

God he hasn’t seen Tom for so long, was he doing ok? Did he still think I am cool?  
Was Tom mad about the new world he and Star created, and about them leaving him behind?

  
He did not mean to do that, to segregate Tom from the rest. He missed his days with Tom dearly. He missed his hellhorse carriage, man, even his sassy, half ass attitude, his resting bitch face, he missed them all. Marco did not know that he had a multiple-choice question in front of him three years ago. He did not know that if he chose Star, he will lose Tom.

  
Marco felt guilt heavily weighted on his chest, tried to breath by grabbing onto his own blouse. He slowed his steps and spaced out at the sight of the ceiling of the light tower, as if it has all the answers to his questions.

**Back to Present Timeline**  
Marco popped out a hidden blade from the heel by kicking his boots. He turned his body and kicked off the vine near his right hand. As soon as his wrist broke free he drew his sword and cut off the vine on his left wrist, dropped to the ground and quickly got up.

  
“Tom, Please, wake up, It’s me Marco! Don’t you remember me?” Marco peeled the thorns off his hands, squirmed at the feeling of pain, “ Don’t lose to dark magic! You are better than this!”

  
“Marco.” Demon called his name with his half-lidded eyes. For a second Marco detected a mix of emotion from his tone, but he soon shook that idea off.  
“Tom, it’s me, Marco, your friend.”

  
As if certain words triggered something inside of Tom, he opened his glowing eyes again, body flamed up, thorns ready to attack.  
Tom whispered with his lowest voice, “Abandonment.”  
“…Tom?”

  
“Abandonment.” With Tom’s word, thorns started its attacks.  
Tom’s ….emotion. Marco barely dodged the thorns, quickly realized what Tom was saying.

  
“Forgotten.”  
Marco bit his lips hard, feeling the immense amount of agony from Tom’s words. The demon prince was in so much emotional pain that they almost became tangible to Marco.

  
“Betrayal.”  
“Tom, please, we did not betray you, that’s not the case.” Marco chopped off another vine, “I am sorry, Tom, please don’t be mad at us. We did not do it on purpose.”

  
“Hurt.”

Marco’s motion stopped as the epiphany hit him like one of Tom's fire balls ; he turned his body to Tom, can't help to thinking about the word…HURT.  
  


Tom’s emotion …was not anger.

  
Marco looked right into Tom’s eyes, for a moment there he caught the pupil of the demon discreetly merging from the creepy glows. Inside those pupils they bear no anger and a sea of sadness. A nameless emotion hit Marco so hard it almost rendered him defenceless.

  
“You are not…mad.” Marco relaxed his arm and let go his sword. It dropped to the ground and made a harsh sound. The crazy vines around him came to a sharp break, including the one that was inches away from Marco’s head. Brown hair youth can’t stop shaking his body, he looked up to Tom with confidence, come to realization of the name of that emotion, “ You are not mad, you are…sad, no, lonely.”

So lonely that your sadness nourished a garden of poison vines.

Like losing the will to live, the vines around them withered. Tom returned to the ground, silently watching Marco walking towards him. The flower of death was still struggling to survive on his chest, yet Tom felt so light-weighted, like he finally left the burden on his shoulder behind.

  
“Marco.” He whispered softly; the sound of his name almost made Marco silently sob.

“Sorry, Tom…” Marco responded, showed him the worst smile of his life, “ I am so sorry that I make you feel lonely.”

  
“Marco.” Tom was still calling his name, as if that was the first word he learned, and the only word he knew how to pronounce. Marco can hear the sweetness and joy in it.  
“Tom.” Marco took off his gloves and whipped off the blood on his hand, then reached out to Tom’s head, pushed the bang to the side. “You have not once called out Star’s name, does that mean…does that mean you emotion was not directed to her. It was directed to me…is it, Tom?”

  
“…Marco.” Marco closed his eye. Tom’s voice stroked his face like breeze of a summer morning, he has never seen everything so clearly since he lived in his new world. Marco opened his eyes again and hugged Tom with full strength.

  
“I am here, Tom.” He hugged Tom tightly, tear traced down his face leaving two visible lines behind.  
Tom’s body visibly trembled. The flower on his chest finally eroded like desert sand.

  
“Marco……”  
Chocolate brown eyes gazed into ruby red three eyes, after confirming the disappearance of the dark flower, Marco grinned uncontrollably.

“I am so happy you are ….hmmm！“ His words disappeared into a kiss. In shock Marco still managed keep his eyes open and checked out his delusional demon. Tom’s power was greatly drained, leaving his skin a bit pale, lips not as hot as Marco imagined. Yet the youth opened his arms, allowed their kiss deepen, his hands slowly descended onto Tom’s body, and held Tom’s shoulder blade so hard till he can’t feel any gap between them.

**

  
Star crawled out of piles of moldy dark sands, relieved at the sight of died plants, spitted out some sand from her mouth, “Well that’s done!”

  
She used the underworld magic one more time to levitate herself to the outlook, and saw the prince sleeping soundly on the floor. Tom’s head was placed on Marco’s thighs, with Marco stroking his hair gently.  
Marco turn his head to Star and made a “shiii” gesture with his finger.

  
“Marco.” Star sat down beside them.  
“It’s ok, Star, Tom is just really tired.” Marco said so, realized they were both pretty beat.  
Star observed both of her ex’s expression, took out the bell Tom gave her and put it on Marco’s hand, “ Marco, I am gonna ask Madam Dumballa send me back, you come back when you are ready?”

  
Marco slightly nodded his head, took the bell, meanwhile almost never broke his sight from Tom.  
Star gave both of them a smile, left the light tower with Dumballa.

**  
“…what…the…ou…” Tom slowly opened his eye then shut them again, while tried to endure the headache brought by the bright light. The soreness in his body felt like he was being taken apart and reassembled. He stared at the unfamiliar ceiling, soon realized he wasn’t in his room, he wasn’t on his bed. In fact, he is sleeping on some soft reciprocating…flesh?

  
Tom curiously looked up to the person who he is sleeping on and found his long lost human friend. Marco has truly been beaten up by this battle. He body was covered in scratches and blood, eyes shut tightly, bang covered up half of his face.  
Marco’s face… Tom remembered Star talked about the 30-year-old buffed six pack Marco from the other dimension. It was quite different from the Marco in front of him. His Marco still has that adolescent charm before he fully grown into his adulthood. He was smiling in his sleep even though Tom knew he was in a lot of pain.

  
Tom felt a surge of reminiscent and the throbbing sensation from his heart. He cannot remember when he was this closed to Marco, maybe never, he thought to himself.

“Tom…?”  
Tom’s third eye looked to Marco passionately, then realized from Marco’s twisted cheek muscle that he was crushing Marco’s thigh. He bounced up to sit beside Marco, secretly twitch at his body pain, “oops..sorry…must be heavy. Say Marco….why am I here? And..why do you look like shit?”

Marco did his best to maintain his smile and not to laugh at the comment, while waking up his sleeping muscle:” You don’t remember? You were kidnapped by an evil plant, and we fought, and...”  
Tom rubbed his head, all of a sudden saw the ground underneath him started to form circle of water drops. Hesitantly he reached out to his own face and touched the hot liquid from his eyes, “Wait..what..? Tears…why…I am…? I don’t…I mean, I was at the library, and…a book dropped to the ground, a page flipped open..and…?”

  
“Tom…”  
“I remembered …I was sad, so much…sorrow.” Tom kept whipping the tears from his face, yet for the life of him can’t stop them from dropping, “That’s weird …. I can..not remember why.”

  
“It’s ok, Tom…there no need to be sad anymore.”  
Tom looked up to Marco with millions of questions in his head, “What are you talking about, Marco?”

  
Marco shook his head and held Tom’s hand. He can feel that Tom’s hesitation by his attempt to withdraw, yet Tom did not commit to that action.  
Feeling hopeful, Marco opened his mouth and asked, “Tom, do you remember the crimson bell you gave to Star so she can travel to the underworld?”

  
Tom nodded.  
“Could…could I have one too?”  
“Sure.” Tom summoned a crimson bell and put it in Marco’s hand. He wanted to ask what Marco meant by “no need to be sad”, but his head was hazy and he was too tired to go into the whys and wherefores.

“Thank you. I will treasure it.” the human boy’s expression was so sincere Tom almost wanted to give him a hug, held onto him until they both became uncomfortable.

  
“Hey….Marco.” Tom thought for a second, carefully held Marco’s hand. He awed at the sight of Marco’s beautiful and elegant face and the ecstasy busted out of his chocolate eyes like shining stars. All these…because he held Marco’s hand?

  
Tom can’t help to gulp, “Come see me whenever you want, OK? I haven’t seen you for like forever… We don’t have to meet at a life or death situation. You know…we can just…hang out.”

  
“Of course.” Marco nodded his head and gave out a sheepish smile, after a moment of pause, breathed out and gripped onto the bell, “Well..are you free next Tuesday?”  
Tom only remembered how to blink.

  
“I mean, Echo Creek’s mermaids and fairies are hosting a water lantern night at the river bank, to promote…diversities, could you join me?”  
“…Sure thing, I’d love to.” Tom heard events like that were ideal for couples, in fact, he did try to ask Star to go to events like that. But Star found them quite boring. Even with the word “dating” in mind, Tom still cannot find a reason to reject this request. “I will wait for your call.”

The crimson bell glowed in Marco hand, shined onto his alluring features in this gloomy room. Tom’s heart beat faster. Honestly and truthfully, he did not know the connection between a group of people releasing lanterns to the nature and promoting diversities, but he cannot wait to be there with Marco.

  
Under the bright moonlight, while watching thousands bright dots burning on the surface of earth water, as the firelight shined on Marco’s warm yet exquisite smile, Tom might finally find the courage to confess his feeling.  
Confess his loneliness, his longing, and how blissfully peaceful and special Marco had made him feel.

Subconsciously, Tom's hand covered the place where Carnem Manducans used to grow.

He was never so certain about it.  
The tenderness swelled in his chest will bloom a beauteous flower when next they meet.

**Author's Note:**

> There we go, pretty PG -13... 
> 
> All I wanted to write is a story about Tom being trapped by dark magic, Marco going to save him, and somebody is asking somebody else out.
> 
> Be gentle with my grammar and criticism....English is not my first language.


End file.
